A close aide to President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday the Palestinian economy was close to collapse and urged the Hamas-led government to deal with the crisis immediately. The comments by chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, a member of Abbas's Fatah, came amid a growing power struggle between the rival Palestinian groups. Abbas is under pressure from some Fatah leaders to get rid of the elected Hamas administration. Tension has been exacerbated by the economic crisis since Western powers cut aid to the Palestinian Authority to push Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and accept past peace accords. Erekat said evidence for the scale of the problems came from research by his own office, the Negotiations Affairs Department... http://news.yahoo.com

Embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Bush agreed Saturday to expedite the hand-over of full control of Iraq's army to the government as they seek to quell the insurgency and sectarian bloodshed. The two leaders spoke for nearly an hour a day after al-Maliki declared he was a friend of the U.S., but "not America's man in Iraq," leading to talk of a growing rift between Washington and the Iraqi leader. The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the death of a Marine in restive Anbar province west of Baghdad on Friday, raising to 98 the number of U.S. military personnel killed in October, already the fourth deadliest month since the Iraq war began in March 2003. Al-Maliki's office issued a statement after a 50-minute video conference with Bush saying the two leaders agreed to the joint goals of speeding up training of Iraqi soldiers and "handing over security responsibility to the Iraqi government." ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2613122

A caretaker government to oversee Bangladesh's upcoming polls will be installed by Sunday night, an opposition leader said after meeting with the president, hinting at an end to a political crisis that has fueled deadly riots in this impoverished South Asian nation.At least 11 people were killed and hundreds injured in two days of violence after the opposition refused to accept a retired chief justice invited to lead the interim government."A new government will be installed by Sunday evening," Abdul Jalil, general secretary of the main opposition Awami League party, told reporters after meeting with President Iajuddin Ahmed and Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, an outgoing government minister.The government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia — which ended its five-year term Saturday — had invited K. M. Hasan to lead Bangladesh until the general election due in January....http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-10-28-bangladesh_x.htm?csp=34

Calmer winds helped crews fighting a massive wildfire Saturday that killed four firefighters and critically injured a fifth, while investigators searched for the arsonist who set the blaze roaring through the canyons of Southern California. "It looks like things are beginning to turn in our favor. We had a good overnight. It wasn't nearly as windy as it's been," said California Department of Forestry spokesman Bill Peters. Now in its third day, the fire that broke out in uninhabited brushland about 90 miles east of Los Angeles had blackened 39,900 acres, or more than 62 square miles, and was 40 percent contained, authorities said. A reward for information leading to the arsonist soared to $500,000 Friday, as $100,000 posted by Riverside County quickly multiplied with matching offers from the state, neighboring San Bernardino County, Rancho Mirage resident Tim Blixseth and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, which has a casino. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2612906

Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that the church must urgently rebuild confidence and trust damaged by clerical sex abuse scandals, which have created deep wounds.The pope made the remarks to a group of visiting bishops from Ireland, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country where the church has been damaged by sex abuse scandals over the past decade.“In the exercise of your pastoral ministry, you have had to respond in recent years to many heart-rending cases of sexual abuse of minors,” the pontiff told the bishops. “These are all the more tragic when the abuser is a cleric.” ...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15454744/

An automatic safety system shut down a reactor at a nuclear power plant near St. Petersburg Saturday after a short circuit, the state-run company overseeing Russia’s nuclear power plants said.Rosenergoatom said there was no radiation leak from the unplanned shutdown at the Leningrad nuclear power plant’s No. 2 unit — the second shutdown to hit the plant in a week.The company did not say what caused the short circuit. Severe weather in the St. Petersburg area has caused some flooding in the city, and there have been reported power outages throughout the region. The emergency system stopped two turbine generators due to sludge coming into the condenser’s pipes, before shutting down the reactor altogether, the company said.Radiation levels around the plant were normal, it said....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15454912/